Popular Japanese rhythm game Pop’n Music’s cat and bunny mascots get a drastic makeover

After 17 years of rigorous popping and music-ing, the franchise needed to make a change to keep from going stale. It’s just not the change that fans expected.

Originally released in 1998, Pop’n Music is a rhythm video game series where you hit colored buttons corresponding to the falling “notes” on the screen. It’s an extremely popular game in Japanese arcades and is well-known for its bright colors and upbeat songs.

▼ Of course, some people liked the game a little more than others…

There were 21 iterations of the game, all featuring cute anthropomorphized animals that bopped along to the player’s beats.

But those characters had a huge makeover with the newest Pop’n Music game that was released at the end of November in Japan…

Just looking at the progression of the characters throughout the history of the game makes you really wonder why Konami decided to go practically full human in this latest game. Whatever their reason, it doesn’t affect the way the game plays, so if all you wanted to do is frantically press buttons, this is still going to be your favorite game.